Hiring a Php Developer

There are many reasons a business may decide to hire a PHP developer, including help with database operations, server maintenance and CMS administration. PHP developers have the ability to greatly boost a projects productivity, but care should be taken when hiring a PHP developer. Not all PHP developers are created equal and there are some common qualities to look for and mistakes to avoid when hiring a developer.

When it comes to hiring a PHP developer it is important to know the ideal qualities you’re looking for in a candidate. The job of PHP developer is unlike any other role in you company, however, making it very important to understand what qualities you’re looking for in a candidate and why.

First, reliability is an important feature in a PHP developer, but for reasons you may not suspect. Gauging the reliability of a PHP developer requires you to think outside the box because it doesn’t have to do with the ability to get to work on time, like it does in other job roles. Reliability in a PHP developer is the ability see the job through to the end and whether or not they are able to complete all of the tasks they set out to.

The demand for PHP developers is skyrocketing and, as such, it’s common for freelancers and company employees alike to moonlight or take multiple jobs. If your job requires more of the applicant than the normal PHP job, tell them and ask them to honestly assess their ability to see the project through to the end.

Which brings up the next point, honesty. Since your PHP developer will have open access to your systems security or your proprietary technology, it’s important to ask yourself if you can you trust this person with information that is vital to the success of your business? Beyond mere gut feeling, do some homework; ask around. What things do past employers have to say about them? If your job is their first, assess if they were completely forthcoming on the application? Try asking a candidate a “tripwire” question like, have you ever cheated on a test or what do you want out of life? The answers to these questions are usually pretty easy to categorize as either truthful or not and are a great way to assess a person’s character.

The last trait to consider when choosing candidates for a PHP development job is whether they are knowledgable about current technologies and do they have a portfolio that shows this? This is another step that will require you to do a little leg work to find out about the new hottest frameworks in the PHP industry, but the time you invest in researching will pay off in dividends.

The qualities of the candidate aren’t the only important thing to consider when hiring a PHP developer, though, and there are a few commonly made mistakes when weighing a candidates qualities.

The first common mistake is putting too much emphasis on years of experience. While it’s great to have a candidate with a proven track record of helping clients be successful, years of experience can have a negative effect when it comes to software development. When you’re hiring a PHP developer, assess their ability to stay up with current trends; make sure they haven’t fallen out of step with the constantly changing world of software development.

Another common mistake is placing too much importance on a portfolio’s quantity and not enough on quality. Sometimes when shown a portfolio with tons of entries, a hiring manager will accept at face value that the developer is a capable PHP developer. However, pay attention to the scope of their involvement on prior projects and in what capacity did they serve? The case may be that the candidates with the longer portfolio were only junior level PHP developers, while the candidates with the shorter portfolio may have served in larger, more intense roles like lead programmer.

Lastly, the claim that a programmer knows a lot of programming languages is not always a mark in their favor. Often, programmers will try to learn as many languages as they possibly can to increase their marketability, but fail to learn any language very well. Or worse yet, fail completely at learning the abstract concepts behind computer programming in general.

Looking to hire a PHP developer can be a daunting task, but keeping in mind important qualities of potential candidates and the common pitfalls of interviewers will help you easily navigate the PHP developer hiring process.